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Clockworkers

It’s the weekend before my birthday (thirty-something). Instead of clamoring for gifts, I want to spread the love to you, my wonderful reader. So two of my books are on Kindle Countdown sale. That means the longer you wait, the more it’ll cost. So get in there now!

I wrote a novel about elves living in modern day Detroit, and working in a luxury watch factory. Sound interesting? Well you can grab the book on Kindle for just under a dollar right now. Get Clockworkers from Amazon for 99 cents

The plot:

Samantha Chablon is a self-proclaimed “gadget girl”. She runs the family watch repair shop while her eccentric old father spends his days researching fantastical stories of elves. Sam loves her father, but his odd habits have always been a mystery and a burden on the family. But that all changes after her father dies, and she discovers what he left for her.

Sam has inherited a real elf.

Piv is his name, and he is far older than his boyish face and personality would imply. But he’s also wise, and as an elf he is gifted with a preternatural proclivity for making things. Sam’s father taught Piv everything he knows about making watches, and he works faster than human hands could ever move. Sam, being much more enterprising than her father, sees opportunity in Piv’s talents. Soon Piv is not the only elf working for Sam as she goes about building a luxury watch empire powered by secret elf labor.

But the elves have remained hidden from humans for good reason, and it’s not easy to keep a factory full of territorial elves secret in the middle of a metropolis. One night when someone attempts to break into the factory, the elves take matters into their own hands. The incident gives Sam a glimpse of a dark and twisted side of elves that no fairy tales ever mentioned. Samantha will soon discover that great ambition often comes with great risk, and although her elf partners have agreed to work without pay, there are other costly consequences involved in striking a deal with elves.

Here’s the plot in a nutshell: an entrepreneurial young woman inherits a special gift from her father – an elf. She puts him to work building products for her luxury watch company, but she soon discovers that there are certain dangers involved with employing elves.

Here’s a sample:

Sam Chablon, a prudent but insatiably curious man, walked gingerly across the frozen glade. It was just before sunrise, the blue hour, and the only sounds in the forest were the whispers of the wind.

Sam was stalking his latest prey. He had waited for three nights to catch even a glimpse of it, but this morning his patience had paid off. He saw the little fellow dance into a cave on the north shore of the lake.

He continued his approach at a painfully slow pace. Each step took an eternity. He was careful not to let even a single blade of grass betray his presence. He barely breathed, and he willed his excited body to stay cool, lest his quarry catch a whiff of his sweat.

He finally reached the entrance to the cave and a sweet, warm wind caressed his face, melting the ice crystals on the scraggly beard that had grown during his stay in these woods. There was a faint light in there — a white-green glow that made the rocky walls of the cave shine. With the care of a barefooted man walking on eggshells, he went inside.

The cave was deep, and its ceiling was low for a man of Sam’s height. His middle-aged knees protested when he was forced to stoop down as he tiptoed further into the cavern. But the pain was worth it. This kind of opportunity rarely happens twice.

Sam went deeper still, until the odor of the outside world was erased by a bittersweet perfume of jasmine and thyme and other fragrances he wished he knew the names of. The ghostly greenish light that he had seen earlier was now much brighter. The source was just around the bend. Sam paused. He held his breath, and carefully peered past the corner.

His eyes fell on the one thing he had searched for since his childhood: the final proof that validated years of foraging, travel, and the eccentric research that had left him ostracized and ridiculed. There, in that cave, was his dream.